I never publicly say anything negative
about anyone.
And in this connected world,
almost everything is public.

The friend you might think is unconnected
to anyone at your workplace
could be Facebook friends with your boss
or she could post your info with your name attached
and any fool with Google then sees your complaints.

I have a couple of people
I b*tch and complain to.
These people don’t gossip.
They aren’t addicted to social media.
They believe in privacy.
Even with these buddies,
I often don’t use names
or get into gritty specifics.

“The lesson is …
always follow the Golden Rule
and never say anything negative
about anybody in your company.
To do otherwise is unprofessional,
unnecessary, and
more often than not
will come back to haunt you.”

I become frustrated
when talking to
established million dollar earning writers.
They don’t remember
what it is like
to have no readers.
Their marketing advice
always revolves around
marketing to their existing readers.

Talking to midlist and building writers
tends to be more helpful.
They remember
how it was
to start from zero readers.

“It’s very good getting lessons
from people who are
10 to 20 percent ahead of you
because the advice is a lot more real.”
“You can feel great
talking to someone who’s extremely successful,
but a lot of times
those lessons are really not relatable
to your situation.”

There’s so much competition
for eyeballs.
Every company is marketing,
trying to get prospects’ attention.

Once we get one person’s attention,
we want that person
to forward, share, talk about
our marketing campaign.

Average won’t do that.
A ho-hum blog post won’t be talked about.
A me-too Facebook button won’t be shared.
A boring video won’t be forwarded.

But it is almost impossible
to knock it out of the park
with every blog post.

Every week,
on my romance blog,
I have four great blog posts.
These are informational,
maybe sharing reviews
or fun facts about my books.
They’re written
for blogging/book review buddies
or existing readers.

I also have one
absolutely awesome blog post
every week.
This post is long.
It has humorous one-of-a-kind photos.
It covers a sought after topic.
The goal of this post is
to be talked about
and to interest new-to-me readers.

THIS is the blog post I promote.
It is often shared
because it is unique
and
well… awesome.

Not every post has to be a cornerstone post
but at least one post a week
should be.

I’m a designated accountant.
My four years of post high school education
focused on accounting rules
and situations.
I then studied even more
to secure my designation.
I’m required,
by my professional membership,
to keep current,
and when I was practicing,
I relied heavily on this training,
a training almost impossible to replicate
without formal education.

I would prefer to hire
an accountant
with a degree/designation.

Clearly, it makes no sense
to prefer to hire
a communications expert
with a college degree.
The senior executive at Wal-mart
was doing a great job
without a degree
(which is why he was being promoted).

Are you valuing a college degree
more than talent, hard work or experience?
Why?

As with any financing,
entrepreneurs should have,
at least, a rough business plan in place.
The pitch is usually done
via video.
The copy should be tight.

And as Gord Woodward,
in the
September/October
The Costco Connection
shares

“It’s a matter of marketing.
Word has to be spread.
Your circle of contacts has to be tapped
(experts suggest 25 to 30 percent
of the goal has to come
from people you know).
And you must be prepared
to answer questions
and provide more information
to potential donors.”

Each site usually has its requirements
and, as always,
it is recommended that you study
the pitches of successful projects
on these sites.